Education Return and Awarding Qualifications in 2021

Lord Lexden Excerpts

Monday 1st March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, obviously many of the mitigations that certain children with special educational needs need in terms of extension of time in exams are not obviously going to be relevant under this system. There is a short list at the moment of assessment materials that teachers can take into account; it is not just “sit an essay”. There is are a range of materials and we would and do expect and hope that teachers will know, in circumstances such as the noble Lord outlines, which materials to set for children with those particular needs. I will write to him about whether there is any specific aspect of the training that exam boards will give in regard to special educational needs students and the outperformance in exams that he outlines.

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as a former general secretary of the Independent Schools Council and the current president of the Independent Schools Association. Do the Government recognise that independent schools want to work as closely as possible with their colleagues in the maintained sector, strengthening the well-developed partnership between them still further, in order to play a full part in the recovery of the entire national education system? Will there be opportunities for independent schools to contribute to the recovery schemes that the Government are now designing?

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

I thank the noble Lord for his persistence in raising this issue. I have the great privilege of meeting at least every fortnight with the Boarding Schools’ Association and the Independent Schools Council. We have certain partnerships with them, particularly in relation to vulnerable children in boarding schools, but I do want to say, in relation to catch-up being for the lifetime of the Parliament, that now is the moment for us as the department and that sector to really try to square this circle and find a larger-scale way in which the good will of the sector and the needs of our children can be aligned so that we can deliver something more substantive.